Krakoan Age

The Krakoan Age was a series of X-Men storylines published by Marvel Comics from 2019 to 2024. The Krakoan Age began with the Jonathan Hickman limited series House of X and Powers of X (July – October 2019) and it consists of four major publishing initiatives: Dawn of X (October 2019 – November 2020), Reign of X (December 2020 – March 2022), Destiny of X (March 2022 – July 2023) and Fall of X (August 2023 – June 2024). These phases were interspersed with crossover and event storylines. The Krakoan Age spans "more than 500 issues of X-Men comic books" published "across more than 80 different series". The subsequent publishing initiative, X-Men: From the Ashes, relaunched the X-Men line in a post-Krakoan Age.

The Krakoan Age was defined by the creation of a sovereign mutant nation on the living island of Krakoa and the effective immortality of mutantkind via the newly established resurrection protocols. It featured storylines across multiple timelines. Throughout the phases, mutants faced opposition from the human supremacist organization Orchis who would orchestrate the downfall of Krakoa. The Dominion, god-like entities who exist outside of normal space and time, also threatened the existence of mutants.

Critical reception has been generally positive, with critics praising it as a departure from the usual status quo of many mutant stories. It also received praise for its world-building, story arcs, and its willingness to shed light on lesser-known characters. However, reception became more mixed as the era progressed, with some aspects of later storylines falling short of expectations.

After Jonathan Hickman completed his run on Avengers and New Avengers with the 2015 crossover "Secret Wars", he stepped away from Marvel Comics for a time to focus on creator-owned projects. His return was announced in March 2019. It was then revealed that he would write two interlocking miniseries called House of X and Powers of X (HOX/POX), with penciling by Pepe Larraz and R. B. Silva respectively. This miniseries also marked a company-wide relaunch of the X-Men. To this end, all ongoing X-Men comics – Uncanny X-Men, Mr. and Mrs. X, X-Force, X-23, and the Age of X-Man miniseries – were cancelled. It was subsequently announced in July 2019 at San Diego Comic-Con that there would be six new X-titles as part of Marvel's Dawn of X campaign; Hickman wrote the flagship title, X-Men (vol 5), during this storyline. Entertainment Weekly highlighted that the Krakoan Age marked a shift in the X-Men mission statement – "the X-Men stopped being superheroes, and became nation-builders". On creating a new society, Hickman stated:

I think one of the interesting things about taking all the mutants and making a culture out of it is that a lot of the pre-culture roles that were defined by external forces have to be revisited when the whole thing gets rejected, or replaced, by new ones. Some people who the world called monsters would reveal themselves not to be, and some who were angels would turn out to eventually do the devil's bidding.

In February 2022, Micheal Foulk of The Beat commented that while Hickman was called "Head of X" that he insisted the "new era of X-Men was not his vision alone. The X-Office introduced a human 'power circuit' where writers, editors, and artists worked collectively on every aspect of the new launch, including the direction and execution of the full X-line. The 'X-slack' where writers and artists discussed story arcs and traded characters for books became a common topic in interviews". Following the X of Swords (September – November 2020) crossover event which concluded Dawn of X campaign, the Reign of X publishing initiative was launched in December 2020. Hickman characterized Dawn of X's theme as "foundation" with Reign of X characterized as "expansion". X-Men Group Editor Jordan D. White stated that "'Dawn of X' was the start of something big for the mutants, they stopped playing the game the way the humans said they had to play. [...] During 'Dawn' there was still a bit of the shock of 'Is this really happening?' and now in 'Reign' the reality of it has set in and the scope of it can be realized. They have big plans and the resources to carry them out". The Reign of X phase saw the line come together for the Hellfire Gala (June 2021) event, as well as Jonathan Hickman's departure from the line with the miniseries Inferno (September 2021 – January 2022). Following Hickman's departure, X-Men continued as the flagship title but was relaunched as new volume written by Gerry Duggan with art by Larraz.

Reign of X concluded with the twin event series X Lives of Wolverine and X Deaths of Wolverine (January – March 2022), written by Benjamin Percy with X Lives artwork by Joshua Cassara and Federico Vicentini; the majority of the line (aside from X-Men, New Mutants, and Sabretooth) was put on pause during this event. This event served as the foundation of the next phase titled "Destiny of X". This phase included the crossover event A.X.E.: Judgment Day (July – November 2022) which focused on humanity's discovery of the mutant resurrection protocols and the subsequent conflict between the Avengers, the X-Men and the Eternals. This event was written by Kieron Gillen with art by Valerio Schiti. X-Men Red by writer Al Ewing, with art by Stefano Caselli, focused on the terraformed Mars now known as Arakko, which became the home of millions of mutants freed during the X of Swords crossover. Additionally, Gillen began writing the Immortal X-Men series with artist Lucas Werneck which focused on the Quiet Council of Krakoa; this series built plot points for the Sins of Sinister (January – April 2023) event which concluded the phase.

Mutantkind's unparalleled growth and prosperity on the island nation Krakoa was then threatened by the human supremacist organization Orchis during the Fall of X phase. At New York Comic-Con 2022, Duggan commented that "the X-Men have been winning for a long time. How long did you think the villains were going to leave them alone". The final phase was kicked off in the third annual Hellfire Gala (July 2023) which drastically altered the status quo of series; this event was written by Duggan, with art by Adam Kubert, Luciano Vecchio, Matteo Lolli, Russell Dauterman, Javier Pina, R.B. Silva, Joshua Cassara, Kris Anka, and Pepe Larraz. This phase then culminated in the dual interconnected miniseries Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X (January 2024 – May 2024); Duggan wrote Fall of the House of X with art by Werneck. Gillen continued as a main writer on multiple series in this phase such as Rise of the Powers of X with artist R.B. Silva, the ongoing Immortal X-Men conclusion and the limited series X-Men: Forever (March 2024) with artist Luca Maresca. Ewing concluded the ongoing X-Men Red with artist Yildiray Çinar. The Marvel solicitations for May 2024 showed that every X-Men series would conclude with that month billed as "the 'penultimate' month of the Krakoan Age".